Jonathan Rea won the ten-lap WorldSBK Superpole race on Sunday morning at Phillip Island to restart his World Championship campaign in strong form after his no-score on Saturday.
Another cast iron classic at the awesome PI rollercoaster, as Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was second by just 0.067 seconds. Rea had passed him inside the long final two curves, staying out wide and having enough speed and corner exit pace to hold off an immediate push from the following three riders.
With Toprak second, Scott Redding (Aruba.it Racing – Ducati) was third by just 0.005 seconds in another blanket finish for the podium places. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team) scored fourth and was just over 0.2 seconds from the win.
Just one second back from Rea, Michael van der Mark (Pata Yamaha WorldSBK Team) was fifth, then Tom Sykes (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Loris Baz (Ten Kate Racing Yamaha). Sykes had been higher up earlier and Baz was up and down the leading order for much of the early laps, his aggression to the fore.
Leon Haslam (HRC) ran wide and lost so much time on the first lap he finished seven seconds back, with Michael Ruben Rinaldi (Team GoEleven Ducati) ninth and Maximilian Scheib (Orelac Racing VerdNatura Kawasaki) tenth.
Alvaro Bautista had a fast crash and no-scored.
After pre-race warm-up crashes Garrett Gerloff (GRT Yamaha) and Eugene Laverty (BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) failed to start today.
